Elizabeth Holtzman upset a veteran and made a mark on Vietnam and Nixon. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's similar feat could turn her into an economic force.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s primary win over House Democratic Caucus Chairman Joe Crowley instantly set the internet on fire and forced political analysts everywhere to change their thinking.

To a certain extent that’s not at all surprising. A young, largely unknown minority woman with highly progressive positions upset a white male 20-year incumbent who is a senior member not just of the House Democratic leadership but also of the larger Democratic establishment.

The veteran New York congressman was better known and much better funded. While there were rumblings about him being in trouble, the general assumption among analysts and pundits was that, in the end, Crowley would be renominated.

But at least some of the surprise to Ocasio-Cortez’s big victory should have been tempered by the fact that it was not unprecedented. In fact, 46 years earlier, also in New York City, another woman successfully challenged another long-time member of the Democratic establishment a primary. That year, 1972, Elizabeth Holtzman toppled Emanuel Celler, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee.

A Democratic socialist far to left of Crowley

The parallels between the Holtzman and Ocasio-Cortez primaries are actually quite striking. Both challengers were young (Holtzman was 31; Ocasio-Cortez is 28). Both were taking on entrenched incumbents (Celler had been in office for 50 years when Holtzman decided to run against him; Crowley for 20).

Both Ocasio-Cortez and Holtzman were also taking on their respective local Democratic organizations, which were heavily invested in and committed to keeping their incumbents in place — and very antagonistic to outsiders.

And Holtzman and Ocasio-Cortez were both espousing political positions that were far to the left of the people they were challenging.

Holtzman was heavily influenced by the anti-Vietnam War policies of Sen. George McGovern, D-S.D., who had just won the Democratic presidential nomination to run against Richard Nixon. Holtzman’s anti-war stands resonated with her voters, even though many of them or members of their families had served in the military in World War II and Korea. It was the absolute right political position for that district at that time.

Ocasio-Cortez, who considers herself a Democratic Socialist, was heavily influenced by independent Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont.. Her support for much of the Sanders economic platform — everything from Medicare for all to a jobs guarantee — resonated at least as much with her voters as the anti-Vietnam message had impressed Holtzman’s.

But what’s most revealing about the comparison of the two races is how much better both Ocasio-Cortez and Holtzman understood how their respective congressional districts had changed.

Holtzman’s district had become younger, with parents and their children both worried about the draft. Ocasio-Cortez’s change was mostly ethnic. In many cases, her voters saw Crowley — a white middle-aged man — as no longer representative of who they were and unable to appreciate their needs.

Both Ocasio-Cortez and Holtzman were facing incumbents who hadn’t had a serious election challenge in years and didn’t realize until it was too late that they needed to adopt a new campaign style. The story back when I managed the Holtzman campaign was that Celler hadn’t actually campaigned in the district for years. Crowley had been back multiple times butdidn’t do the one-on-one campaigning that Ocasio-Cortez instantly recognized as being so important, and he even skipped primary debates.

A first-term force for economic equality?

The question is what’s next. As was the case with Holtzman, winning the Democratic primary in her heavily Democratic district is tantamount to Ocasio-Cortez being elected in November.

Holtzman usedher position as a member of the House Judiciary and Budget committees to make it difficult for the Vietnam War to continue. In her first term in office, she even sponsored the article of impeachment that cited the war as one reason Nixon should be removed from office and proposed the “transfer” amendment to shift funds from the Pentagon to domestic programs.

If the parallels continue, we should expect Ocasio-Cortez to be as forceful an advocate for her economic positions as Holtzman was in her opposition to the Vietnam War. As Holtzman showed, a first-term member of Congress can definitely have a significant impact on federal policies.

Stan Collender managed several of Elizabeth Holtzman’s re-election campaigns. He now teaches at Georgetown University’s McCourt School of Policy. Follow him on Twitter: @thebudgetguy